A senior police official in Myanmar’s capital tells the Voice that they have released nearly two dozen of the approximately 60 workers arrested on Wednesday in a rare protest in Naypyitaw.
Chief police officer Ko Ko Aung, from Naypyitaw’s regional police force, told the paper that those released were sent home to Sagaing by car but that the rest were still being investigated.
Police in the capital violently cracked down on the labor protest at around 1:30pm on Wednesday, beating and arresting the protesters and their supporters.
The short-lived demonstration is believed to have been the first ever held in Napyitaw, which was built from scratch by the previous military government about 10 years ago.
The workers were from a factory in Sagaing Region and were calling for a salary increase and the reinstatement of a colleague who had been fired.
A group of 120 marched from Sagaing. After some dropped out from heat exhausted, the rest continued onto the capital.
Local officials reportedly told them not to enter the city.
“We believe in the workers. We see they are honest. But if chaos occurs in Naypyitaw it will hurt the reputation of the capital,” U Aye Thaung, administrator for Naypyitaw’s Ottarathiri township, told the Myanmar Times.
